#EdFringe17 Comedy Q&A: Andrew Lawrence

Andrew
Lawrence was the runner up in ‘So You Think You’re Funny’ in 2003 and then won
the ‘BBC New Comedy Award’ a year later. He’s since staged numerous national
tours and written and starred in several BBC Radio 4 comedy shows. He’s back in
Edinburgh in 2017.

I’ve always been a dark comic, since I started in 2003, so I get the inevitable inane outrage from people who want to be offended.

Hi Andrew, tell me about your Edinburgh show

It's
a stand-up comedy show, all new material, the start of my seventh UK tour in
consecutive years. Audiences can expect a lot of un-PC jokes, poking fun at
Liberal pretensions and the horrors of parenthood, from an experienced live
comic going all-out for belly laughs.

What does Edinburgh mean to you?

This
will be my twelfth solo stand-up show at the Edinburgh Fringe. It's where I
come to improve my own comedy and watch the very best comedians from all over
the world. There’s no bigger or better festival for stand-up.

Who inspires you and why?

Like
most people, my family. My partner and my daughter give me my motivation
professionally. I want them both to have a great life, so I work hard to be the
funniest comic I can be, so that I can afford to give them that.

Describe your best or worst experiences on stage.

I
think it's only when you're quite new to comedy that particular gigs stay with
you. I've been doing stand-up so long, thousands of shows, that individual gigs
don't stay in the memory. Once a show is over, I think about it for about an
hour, what went well, what I could have done better, then I don't think about
it again.

Describe your best or worst review.

Again,
I've had hundreds of reviews since I started in comedy, and now with social
media everyone's a reviewer, so they stop being memorable- but mostly they stop
being credible. I don't think anyone really trusts reviews anymore, because
with the internet it's increasingly difficult to differentiate random snark,
from hobby journalism, from professional critics.

I
think anyone sensible follows their instincts. If they think they're going to
like a comic, they watch a video of them on YouTube, or they just go along and
see them and they make their own mind up

The
last book I read was the final draft of my own one- 'A Glossary of PC Tossery',
available from Amazon now.

Tell me about the 2016 Sky
Arts documentary ‘The Outcast Comic’.

I
put a post on social media in 2014 that unintentionally caused a great deal of
outrage within the comedy industry, mostly because I poked fun at the equality
and diversity quotas that now dictate which comics get to appear on TV.

I
had about two years of daily abuse on social media from other comics after
this. A fair few left-wing comedy journalists wrote a lot of contrived nonsense
about me. Some venues and promoters stopped booking me, despite the fact I’d
done good work and made money for them for years. A documentary maker found out
about all this and I agreed for them to make a programme about it for Sky Arts.

Given the flack you’ve received, are you a fan of
social media?

Yes,
I think it’s great. For the first time as a comedian, you can be successful
without having a powerful agent or blandifying your act for TV.

You
can put funny content on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and build a good tour
following that way, if you’re skilled at what you do.

I’ve
always been a dark comic, since I started in 2003, so I get the inevitable
inane outrage from people who want to be offended.

I’m
not at all bothered about trolls sending me abuse on social media, so long as
what I’m putting up there is entertaining other people and making them laugh.

Imagine that the BBC have asked you to produce a primetime
show. What would it be and who else would be involved?

I'm
a live stand-up, and that’s all I’ve ever wanted to be. If a TV producer thinks
I’ve got something to offer, they’re welcome to come and find me, I’m always
open to offers, but I’ve been doing comedy long enough to know I’m happiest on
a stage, in a theatre, making people laugh.